Rolling outages that left thousands without power in February were driven overwhelmingly by fuel shortages — especially in natural gas, executives with the Southwest Power Pool said Monday. This winter, sustained frigid temperatures across the Midwest and South forced huge demand for energy while the weather made generators struggle to keep up. The Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization spanning 17 states, twice instructed its member utility companies, including Evergy, to shut off customers’ power or “shed load” in order to keep the grid stable and avoid uncontrolled outages like those seen in Texas. For five months, SPP has been reviewing the events of February and coming up with a plan to not let it happen again. Its most urgent action items center on better predicting how much energy it will have and ensuring the fuel it needs shows up on time.
Source: Kansas Reflector
